1/32 Matchbox De Havilland DH-82

a Tiger Moth

by Tamer Ozkan

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  Turkey Republic Day 2004 

 

History of the DH 82 Tiger Moth:

The DH82 Tiger Moth resulted from a line of development that began in 1925 with the first DH60 Moth. This was a light aircraft, which epitomized private flying in the post World War One period. The De Havilland brothers designed the Moth in the attempt to create a plane that was easy to fly, cheap to purchase and maintain, and small to minimize hanger space required. The Tiger Moth was a rugged single bay biplane design with a wooden (Spruce) structure, covered by fabric on the wings and tail surfaces, and ply on the fuselage. It was powered by a De Havilland Gypsy III, a 130 horse power engine, had a range of 300 miles (483 km), a cruising speed of 85 mph (136 km/h), a top speed of 109 mph (175km/h), and could climb at 700 Ft/Min (213.35 m/Min) to a ceiling of 17000 Ft (5181.30 m) (Sharp, 1960).

The Model:

DH-82 a Tiger Moth(TC-KUR) trainer was acquired by Turkish Airlines in 1937 and It was later sold to Vecihi Hurkus in early 1950's.  All of my efforts, I did not have change to find the plane's picture or more information.

The model was based on the information given by the late Technician Mr Mustafa Uygur who saw the airplane.

The kit was an old The matchbox kit .I built the kit straight out of the box but painted all of the numbers, letters, the star and crescent.  I used Tamiya enamel paints ,fishing line for the rigging and some bare metal foil for the engine cowlings.

Tamer

Photos and text © by Tamer Ozkan